Different types of moveable barrier operators have been sold over the years and these barrier operator systems have been used to actuate various types of moveable barriers. For example, garage door operators have been used to move garage doors and gate operators have been used to open and close gates.
Such barrier movement operators may include various mechanisms to open and close the barrier. For instance, a wall control unit may be coupled to the barrier movement operator and send signals to a head unit thereby causing the head unit to open and close the barrier. In addition, operators often include a receiver unit at the head unit to receive wireless transmissions from a hand-held code transmitter or from a keypad transmitter, which may be affixed to the outside of the area closed by the barrier or other structure.
Some vehicles include a transmitter or transceiver that is affixed to or incorporated directly into the structure of the vehicle. These transmitters are used by users in their vehicles to actuate moveable barrier operators such as garage door operators. After being actuated by the transmitter, the moveable barrier operator then operates the barrier as directed by the transmitter.
Incorporating the transmitter into the structure of the vehicle provides several advantages. For example, when incorporated into the structure of the vehicle, the transmitter is typically directly connected to the power source of the vehicle thereby assuring an adequate and constant supply of power to the transmitter. Securing the transmitter into the structure of the vehicle also helps prevent damage to or loss of the transmitter.
While offering several advantages, these previous built-in transmitter systems also suffered from several disadvantages. Moveable barrier operators are often actuated by codes and the older codes used by these moveable barriers are sometimes changed or updated with new codes to provide better security. A user may also replace an old barrier operator with a new barrier operator that operates using new codes. Unfortunately, when new codes or code formats are used by the barrier operator and the old codes are still retained at the transmitters, the transmitter/barrier operator system will not be able to function properly together due to the code mismatch.
Some previous systems have attempted to circumvent these shortcomings by using an activator device that was coupled to the transmitter. When a specific code was received, the activator device sent a signal to activate the original transmitter. However, these systems proved to have security risks when used within vehicles. More specifically, when the activator device was placed in a vehicle, a thief could easily remove the transmitter from the activator device in the vehicle and then enter the protected area. In some cases, the activator device was placed securely inside the house of a user, but this prevented the transmitter from being used with other operators at other locations such as a summer home. Additionally, these previous systems required that a complicated electronic or mechanical interface be provided between the activator device and the transmitter.
Code translators were also used in previous systems in an attempt to overcome the above-mentioned problems. However, all of these previous code translators needed to first learn the codes from the transmitter before they could properly function. Additionally, these previous code translators proved time-consuming to implement (e.g., often requiring complicated user input and instructions) and, in any case, might not be effective in achieving the desired results.